Not long ago we announced our intention to stage a Seaprog 2016, and to carry the event forward into the future for as long as it’s realistic to do so. While the Central Committee remains committed to extending Seaprog’s run, circumstances have arisen that have led to a decision to skip a year and stage the next Seaprog in 2017 instead. We apologize for the reversal, but please hear us out.
The decision was not made lightly, and is not an indicator of the festival’s overall health, which we feel is very robust indeed on an artistic level. The choice arises from two main reasons: First, we’ve come to realize that soliciting additional funding from a supporting organization is a lengthy process — likely too lengthy to yield material results in time for a summer 2016 event. Second, Seaprog is organized entirely by volunteers who are also musicians with busy lives, and 2016 is shaping up to be extremely busy (in a good way) for all of us. Dennis has been tapped to co-direct a major music project in Russia in fall 2016 that will consume all of his available time up to then; John’s new recording studio is nearing completion, with multiple sessions slated for production; and Jon is busily expanding his musical horizons with his projects Super Z Attack Team and Zhongyu. Such are the vagaries of all-volunteer undertakings like Seaprog, but based on past success, we’re all eager to mount the festival again in 2017, by which time we’ll have had time to strengthen its financial footing.
- In the meanwhile, we plan on keeping Seaprog in public view by staging several single-day concert events at intervals throughout the coming year — stay tuned for details.
- Obviously, we’re not going to be fielding submissions during this brief hiatus, so please hold off on making inquiries until the calendar approaches 2017.
We thank you profusely for your understanding and support, and pledge to be back in 2017 with the same high caliber of progressive music you’ve come to expect from Seaprog. We’ll keep you posted…
— Dennis, John, and Jon
Seaprog Central Committee